Workshop interview #3: Super Spinners

At 4pm on the Saturday at Indietracks, Gareth and Jeanie will be running an ace Victorian-themed toy-making workshop... 

Hi, please tell us about the workshop?

In our workshops, we'll be making Zoetropes, ace Victorian style animation toys. Zoetropes are an early form of animation, consisting of a set of drawings inside a round barrel - by spinning the barrel and looking through the slits in the side, your drawings appear to come to life! We'll be providing kits to make your own Zoetrope, and showing you how to make tiny cartoons to play in them. There will be ready made animations to colour in and use, as well as blank sheets for you to make your own. At the end of the workshop, your Zoetrope is yours to keep!

See a zoetrope in action here:

We'll provide all the stuff you'll need to build your Zoetrope, as well as paper, pens and crayons. The workshop is open to everyone, although much younger participants might want to bring an adult along to help with the fiddly bits!

Tell us about yourselves

We are film-maker Jeanie Finlay and animator/web-designer Gareth Howell. We have, together and separately, run many workshops in the past, including workshops at Indietracks, making cartoons and rubberband-powered cars. The Zoetrope workshop was originally run at Nottingham Hackspace, a community space for arts and technology. We love coming back to Indietracks as it is the perfect, most friendly festival!

This year's festival line-up looks the best yet, and we're particularly looking forward to Allo Darlin, The School and The Just Joans, as well as waving from the tiny train and the curry shack.